Saturday, July 25, 2009

Shine that Silver!

Recently a friend of mine told me that she had inherited a good deal of sterling silver pieces from a family member. She complained to me that polishing each piece was taking FAR too long. Her method? Buying the silver polish and using that tiny little brush thingie that comes with the polish. So, I shared with her a little something that I found to be useful when trying to freshen up tarnished silver. This will work for nearly any piece of silver, be it dishes, jewelry, door handles...

1) Grab an old sock. You know, a sock whose match has fallen victim to the dryer monster. Any lonely old cotton sock will do. I personally prefer white. Come on, you've got one laying around somewhere.

2) Grab the nearest tube of toothpaste (or silver polish, if you only want to half DIY).

3) Put that sock on your hand! Revisit the days of your DIY puppeting skills. For some of us, those days aren't as far gone as for others.

4) Moisten your sock with a bit of warm water from the sink.

5) Squeeze a quarter-sized amount of toothpaste onto your socked hand. Use your thumb and forefinger to spread it around a bit on the sock.

6) Rub the tarnish away. Depending on the surface area of the item that you are trying to polish, you'll have to re-load your sock with toothpaste or polish.